Cross-fostered chimpanzees also invent signs

[Allen Gardner]

On the question of signs invented by the gorilla KoKo as reported by
Francine Patterson, it would be a good idea to find in Patterson's
publications exact descriptions of the signs and the criteria for
calling them signs.

On the question of signs invented by cross-fostered chimpanzees the
following passages appear in:

Gardner, B.T., Gardner, R.A., & Nichols, S.G. (1989). The shapes and
uses of signs in a cross-fostering laboratory. In Gardner, R.A.,
Gardner, B.T., & Van Cantfort, T.E. (Eds), _Teaching sign language to
chimpanzees_, Albany: SUNY Press.

These passages describe inventions and explain why we discouraged them
in the Gardner laboratory.  Bear in mind that the chimpanzees in this
laboratory were under total immersion in ASL.

pp 60-62

    Apart from name signs for the members of the foster families we
avoided inventing signs altogether.  The one exception is PEEKABOO,
made by covering the eyes with one or both open hands, a gesture that
Washoe used, irrepressibly, to invite games of hide and seek (we used
the ASL sign HIDE in the same contexts).  Even though Washoe used
PEEKABOO in phrases (e.g. YOU ME GO PEEKABOO) as well as in single-
sign utterances, we omitted PEEKABOO from our last comprehensive list
of Washoe's vocabulary (B. Gardner & Gardner, 1975), because we could
not find this sign described in any published dictionary of ASL.
Later, Moja, Tatu, and Dar, each reinvented this sign for hide-and-
seek.  Tatu and Dar also used it to refer to masks which were among
their favorite toys and even to invite human and chimpanzee friends to
put on masks.  Inevitably, their human playmates fell into the habit
of using PEEKABOO rather than HIDE, themselves.  In view of all of
these observations we decided to add PEEKABOO to the vocabulary lists.
    We took some pains to honor the rule against invented signs.
Early in Project Washoe, our contacts with the deaf community were
sporadic and limited.  Available dictionaries at that time, were
chiefly designed for helping professionals and others who wished to
communicate with adult signers.  It was difficult to find signs for
the common objects in a nursery environment.  Rather than invent new
signs in such cases, we used signs with closely related meanings that
we could find in manuals and dictionaries.
    When we failed to find a sign for the English word "bib" for
example, we substituted a sign that was glossed as NAPKIN in available
sources.  This sign is made by rubbing the palm of an open hand over
the lips and chin.  A prominent ritual at the beginning of each meal
consisted of arranging a bib around Washoe's neck and over her chest.
As usual, actions were accompanied by simple comments and simple
questions.  Washoe got fed whether or not she joined in the
conversation, of course.  One evening in the 18th month of Project
Washoe, just before serving dinner we held up her bib and asked
Washoe, WHAT THIS?  Washoe replied PLEASE GIMME PLEASE GIMME ... GIMME
.... and then, with the index fingers of both hands, she drew the
outline of a bib, starting from behind her neck where a bib would be
tied, down along the outer edge of her chest, bringing her fingers
together again at her midriff.  It struck us immediately that this was
an excellent way of signing BIB, really better than the one we were
using which was glossed as NAPKIN rather than BIB in our best source,
anyway.
    At the next weekly meeting of the human participants we considered
the possibility of adopting Washoe's invented sign for BIB.  The
outcome of a heated debate was that, however apt Washoe's BIB looked
to us, however easy it was for us to understand her when she used it,
human children have to learn the language they find in the adult
community, and so should a properly cross-fostered chimpanzee.
Equally important, the link with native signers depended on known
signs of ASL.  NAPKIN was a known sign of ASL, so we stuck to it and
soon the NAPKIN sign became Washoe's reliable name for bibs as well as
for tissues and washcloths.  Five months later, on a visit to the
California School for the Deaf in Berkeley, we showed films of the
early results of Project Washoe to an audience of faculty and
students.  When we showed the sign that we were using for BIB, native
signers in the audience were quick to tell us that the ASL sign for
BIB was made by indicating the outline of a bib on the chest -- very
much like the sign that Washoe had invented for herself.
    This observation suggests that Washoe had absorbed enough sign
language so that she could coin legitimate signs on her own.  It
remains an isolated incident, however, because we had more direct
sources of nursery signs as our circle of informants in the deaf
community widened.  During the second project with Moja, Pili, Tatu,
and Dar, many native signers as well as fluent signers who had had
extensive contact with the deaf community were members of the foster
families.  At the same time, published dictionaries and manuals of
sign language continued to improve.  Soon, the adult models always had
rich vocabularies of authentic nursery signs and they could always
keep ahead of chimpanzee inventions.  With the exception of PEEKABOO,
we corrected the cross-fosterlings when they offered their own
nonstandard coinages just as parents correct human children in similar
cases.

--------------------

pp. 81-82

    We recorded unexpected and inappropriate uses as well as
appropriate uses and the patterns of error often tell a great deal
about the structure of the immature vocabularies.  One common pattern
was to confuse signs within the same conceptual category as in CAT for
DOG or BLACK for RED; another was to confuse signs that are formed in
a similar way as in BUG for FLOWER or TREE for CRACKER (cf. R. Gardner
& Gardner, 1984; Chapter 4 this volume).  Sometimes the pattern of
errors revealed still more about the way a very young primate might
divide the referential world, as in the following examples.
    When FLOWER started to become a common item in Washoe's
vocabulary, it was reported in several inappropriate contexts that all
seemed to include prominent odors; for example, Washoe signed FLOWER
when opening a tobacco pouch and also when entering the Gardner
kitchen at a time when there was a chicken boiling on the stove.
Taking our cue from these observations, we modelled and molded the
SMELL sign in appropriate contexts.  For some time, FLOWER (in the
single index, single nostril form) persisted as an error but,
gradually, a highly reliable, well-formed SMELL sign emerged.
    When Moja was 31 months old, the sign ORANGE, used to refer to the
fruit, became a reliable item in her vocabulary and met the fifteen-
day criterion described below.  One day in her 54th month, Moja
commented on the brilliant orange reflection of the sun in the orange
tail light of a nearby parked automobile by signing ORANGE to her
human companion.  Later the same month she signed ORANGE for some
orange-colored medicine (other colors in Moja's vocabulary at that
time were, RED, WHITE, and BLACK).  After that, we systematically
asked her the color of orange objects, and ORANGE to refer to orange
color met the criterion, also.

In addition

Fouts, R.S, Fouts, D.H., & Van Cantfort, T.E. The infant Loulis learns
signs from cross-fostered chimpanzees. In Gardner, R.A., Gardner,
B.T., & Van Cantfort, T.E. (Eds), _Teaching sign language to
chimpanzees_, Albany: SUNY Press.

describe on pp. 285-286 an example of Washoe inventing a sign that
spread to the other cross-fosterlings in the Fouts laboratory but not
to the human participants.